Chapter 18

In February we had another swim meet for the swimming club and again Katy and I won both our events. I think the fact that we had been selected to swim for the county later this month gave us the incentive to train that bit harder and it was showing in our times. We both swam personal bests in both swims. Afterwards as we spoke to Jenny and Di and they congratulated us on our personal bests and suggested that sometime soon we should have another party at our place to celebrate.

The next day as I was walking across the school yard on my way join Katy for lunch. I noticed two guys who seemed to be pressuring a girl about something. I recognised her. She was a very shy person who was in some of my classes. I decided to intervene and went over to them.

"Are you okay with the attention these two are giving you?" I asked.

She shook her head to signify that she wasn't. It was obvious to me from the look on her face that she was scared of whatever they were doing."

One of them turned his head and I think he was about to tell me to fuck off and mind my own business when he recognised me and quickly changed his mind. I managed at that point to recall the girl's name.

"It seems to me that Ellie is not enjoying the attention you are giving her, so I suggest you leave her alone and find something else to do."

The other one now turned and looked at me and he too recognised that I was the guy who had put three bullies in hospital. They decided that discretion was the better part of valour and moved away without another word.

"Are you okay?" I asked her. But it was obvious she wasn't. "Were these two idiots bullying you?" I asked again hoping that this time she would respond.

"You are Katy's boyfriend aren't you?" She said rather nervously.

"Yes I am," I told her. "We have been going out since I moved here. So what was going on with these two?"

"I think they used to pester Katy" She told me "but since you took care of those other bullies they have turned their attention to me."

I could see that she was near to tears so I asked her another question.

"Are there others who have started bullying you since I dealt with those who were bullying Katy?"

"I always got a bit of bullying," she said, "but it has got a lot worse this term. I tried not to be noticed before, but I think since you rescued Katy they have started on me."

"Look I know you are shy," I told her, "but we are going to have to do something about this. So here is my solution. Come with me and you can join our group at lunch time. If they see that we have befriended you they might get the message that we will do something about it and leave you alone."

"I don't know if I could do that," she replied. "I'm not very good at mixing with people and I get all tongue tied."

"Hey! You don't have to do anything just come and sit and listen." I said with a smile. "If somebody asks you a question, just answer it and leave it at that. Once you get to know us then maybe you will be able to relax and join in."

From the expression on her face I think she was like a deer caught in the headlights. She was scared of the bullies but she was also apprehensive about joining a group and having to cope with what was involved in mixing with others. In the end the fear of the bullies won the day and she agreed to my suggestion.

As we walked to the dining hall, I took her hand which startled her a little but she did not pull away.

"I have forgotten your second name Ellie can you tell me it now so that I can introduce you to the others when we reach our table?" I asked.

"Ellie MacLean,"* she said in a voice that was barely above a whisper, but I managed to catch it

As I approached I could see Katy watching me as I led Ellie to our table.

"Hi Gang," I said. "I want to introduce you to Ellie Maclean, she was having a problem with two guys bullying her, but when I intervened they decide they needed to be somewhere else."

That got a bit of a laugh from the rest of the group.

"In view of the fact that she is a bit isolated and this has been an ongoing problem for some time I have invited her to join out little band. If they see that we are taking an interest in her well being they will hopefully decide to leave her alone, after all Charlie is a big lad and a champion wrestler to boot."

That got another laugh since I had refrained from saying anything about my own martial arts skills

There was a space across the table from Katy so I had Elle sit there and then I went round and sat beside my girl.

"I know what it's like to be bullied," Katy said, trying to put Ellie at ease. "I suffered quite a lot with that kind of thing before Peter stepped in and dealt with the worst culprits. If he and Charlie are on your side I think they will probably leave you alone."

"Add to that the fact that we will try and find you another big ugly guy like them and he can be your bodyguard just like they have become ours," Di said with a laugh.

"Who are you calling big and ugly?" Charlie asked. "I will have you know that under these outer garments is the figure of a well muscled Adonis,

Jim who had been staring at Ellie since she sat down responded,

"Being a handsome and debonair fellow I know I don't qualify on the ugly part, but I am reasonably tall and I carry my mobile everywhere and I would be able to quickly summon reinforcements in an emergency," he said. "So if a beautiful girl like Ellie needs an escort, then I would volunteer as I share most of her classes"

At this Ellie's face grew quite pink with embarrassment at this remark.

"I wish somebody like Jim had made me an offer like that a year ago," Katy said with a laugh, "That would have meant, according to Di anyway, that I would not have ended up with such a big ugly boy friend."

"Hey!" I responded. "I may resemble that remark, but think of the excitement and all the loving care you would have missed, not to mention the passionate kisses had that happened. If you had been otherwise engaged when your dad and my aunt got involved with each other look what you would have missed out on."

"Yes, there is that Katy," replied. Then looking over at Jim she batted her eyes at him and said in her best flirtatious voice, "But I am sure you would have given me loving care Jim and that I could have expected passionate and exciting Kisses, from you. Wouldn't I?"

Now it was Jim's turn to blush but he managed to come up with an answer for Katy which got him off the hook.

"I am not going to incriminate myself by answering a question like that," Jim responded. "Not when you consider what your current boyfriend did to Forbes, Gavin and Henderson when they looked at you the wrong way."

That caused a great outburst of mirth and laughter from almost everyone around the table and I think that seeing this kind of interaction between the members of our small band was helping to put Ellie at ease. After a bit the conversation turned to our up and coming Meet and the chances of Jim, Di, Katy and me doing well enough to attract the attention of the selectors and being invited to join the national training squad. This led to Ellie's only comment so far.

"I forgot that they announced at assembly you four had been picked for the county swim team" she said. "My dad gives legal help to the county athletics association. He said when he heard that you had been selected for the county He thought our school might have a chance of somebody representing Scotland at the commonwealth games."

"We are hoping for more than one" Di said, "But that is probably asking a lot."

As we broke up I noticed that Jim made his way over to Ellie and I heard him asking her if she wanted to walk to class with him in case she had any more trouble. I saw her shake her head to signify that she would like that and Jim took her hand as they walked away

Di had seen this little byplay too and she turned to us with a smile,

"Maybe we won't have to look for a big ugly bodyguard after all. If that is the case we might have killed two birds with one stone and found a girlfriend for Jim as well."

"Do you realise if that happens it will have expanded our little group to double its size in less than a year. First Katy and Peter and now Jim and Ellie," Jenny told us.""

"We could also include John and Alice in our group though we don't see them as often because they go to a different school," Katy reminded us. "We always invite them to any parties we have at our house."

"I think you are right Katy," Di responded, "and we may get closer to them if some of us join John in the National Squad.

"If that is the case," Jenny said, "then we have more than doubled our size," she giggled."

That night, Katy realised that the next teacher's in service training day happened to coincide with St Valentines' day so we asked Isa and Joe if we could have the group over while they were at work and they had given us their permission.

Next day at lunchtime Jim had escorted Ellie to our table and once again she joined us without saying much. During the course of this get together I invited everyone to come to our place on the Tuesday of the in service day.

"That includes you Ellie, "I said, to make it clear that she was invited along with rest. "If you do come, bring a swimming costume because our family has a heated swimming pool in the back garden, so even if it is cold we can still use it and probably will."

"I don't know where you stay," she told us, "and as my mum and dad work, I don't know if I would be able to get to your house."

That's okay," Di said, "You don't stay that far away from us, so my mum will pick up you and Charlie and drop us off at Peter and Katy's place. She will also pick us up and bring you back.

I was quite pleased when Di made this offer for I felt it would give Ellie a chance to get to know everyone a bit better. I hoped this would strengthen her ties to the group and make her feel that she really did belong to it. I then suggested they arrive about eleven am. and that we would provide the lunch. In order to know when they needed to picked picked up I also suggested that perhaps we should finish about three so that they could avoid the evening rush hour.

When the day arrived it was Jim who arrived last as he had to make his way there by public transport. As he came into the conservatory he looked around and saw that there was a space beside Ellie on the conservatory sofa as she was the only single person. He went straight over and sat beside her. I noticed that despite her slight blush when he sat down next to her she was quite pleased to see him.

After everyone had finished the drinks and snacks we had provided for them as they arrived, I suggested that if we were going to swim then we should do it before, rather than after lunch.

"I am not a very good swimmer," Ellie told us at this point. "Apart from holiday times, I have very rarely done any swimming."

"Don't worry about that," Jim said immediately. "As you know, most of us are very good at the sport, if you want to improve, then I am willing to help you do so. If you want we will soon have you swimming like a fish," he laughed.

Katy led the girls away to get changed. Since the guys had put on their swimming trunks under their trousers, we just changed in the conservatory and stacked our outer garments in a corner. When the girls came back we made our way to the pool. We all swam and played about in the pool for a time, but as people were beginning to end their swimming session, I overheard Jim say to Ellie